Sunday, December 25, 2011

American Chocolate Piano Cake~ My Children, My Inspiration

My children, Taufiq and late Nurfatihah, are my inspiration.

To me, each cake I bake means something special. Especially since the death of my little princess. The princess doll cake was inspired by Fatihah, whom I cannot and never will have the chance to bake a birthday cake each year (may Allah bless her soul). For this particular piano cake, it was inspired by my son, who recently likes to play the piano on my husband's tablet. He doesn't know any notes, nor does he plays it very well. Or to be honest, he doesn't play at all. All he does is crash/smash his fingers on the keyboard and sings 'I love you like a love song baby' by Selena Gomez on the microphone. *rolls eyes fondly*

It was a challenge trying to get smooth, sharp edges round the cake. There was not much problem when I slathered fresh cream in each corners, but it was a chore when I absent-mindedly poured lukewarm ganache on the cold frosted cake. In the end it resulted in quickly-set ganache and I had to make another batch to pour more smoothly over the old one.

Another thing, next time I'll try using Kit Kats for the black keys. Like a smartass, I piped the borders around the cakes without first making the imprints of the white keys. *tsked tsked*. Otherwise I would've have a smoother looking black-and-white keys and a more realistic-looking keyboard. Ah well, what's done is done.

Something I'll keep in mind for future use:

  • When pouring ganache over a fresh cream cake, always make sure your cake is slightly below room temperature. This is to avoid your ganache from quickly setting when it hits the cold cream.
  • Use 1 part chocolate and 1 part ganache. Too much chocolate and you'll end up with thick ganache that is good for piping but difficult to spread.
  • Always do your homework first. A piano doesn't have 4 black keys.
  • Most importantly, plan ahead.
In case you're wondering, I used the american chocolate cake recipe that I did a few weeks ago.


American chocolate piano cake
Before pouring the ganache, do crumb coat or you'll have specks of crumb cakes in your cream. I didn't do it but hey, I'm a pro  (yelah tu :P)

6 comments:

Puan Ros @ Sinaranmenu.blogspot said...

Wowww. what a nice looking cake.

Cendana Kasih said...

lawanyer zack...macam kek tipu pun ada... hehe

Zack said...

@Puan Ros: tq, buat utk anak bujang sbb nk rasmikan piano baru dia ^_^

@CK: hehe, lepas ni ntah kek apa lak ek nk buat ;p

RajaQina said...

Aii kak..kak,np kek akk sume cntik2??
Gerammmnyyyyee tgk..hehe
Arp dpt train tgn ni mcm tgn akk huhu

wakgelas said...

wak pon sukak kek piano tuuu..., eeeeE wak dh dateng niiii nk komen komennnnn..........

Zack said...

@Qina: hehe.. experience doesn't come cheap Qina..bertahun-tahun akak bljr sorang2, try-and-error ;p alhamdulillah, bolehlah..agak puashati sikit cuma tak sepenuhnya..masih bnyk lg benda nk bljr ;)

@Wak Gelas: terima kasih Wak, dtg le komen~ :P